§ 173. Other disordered forms of the Self-preserv alive principle.

The Propensity of Self-preservation, or desire of the continuance of existence, is generally, and, as we suppose, very correctly, considered an original or implanted principle of the human mind. As such it unquestionably has its distinctive nature, adapted to the precise object for which it was implanted. We must suppose, therefore, that it has a regular or normal action, as well as an irregular or abnormal one. And it is deviation from the regular action which constitutes irregularity of action. This irregularity, therefore, may show itself either in the form of excess of action, or of defect of action, or, what amounts to nearly the same thing, by too great energy or too great weakness of action. The instance which has been given from Pinel shows a disorder or irregularity of the action of this principle in excess. There are other cases, which seem not less clearly to show, that the form or shape of the disorder may sometimes be that of inordinate weakness or defect. We shall proceed here to introduce one or two cases of this kind.

We find the following statement in the Commentaries on Insanity of Dr. Burrows (p. 440): "Harriet Cooper, of Haden Hill, Rowley Regis, aged ten years and two months, upon being reproved for a trifling indiscretion, went up stairs, after exhibiting symptoms of grief by crying and sobbing, and hung herself in a pair of cotton braces from the rail of a tent-bed. A girl named Green, eleven years old,

drowned herself in the New River, from the fear of correction for a trivial fault."

"A French journal" (says Dr. Ray, in his valuable Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence, p. 375) "has lately reported the case of a boy twelve years old, who hung himself by fastening his handkerchief to a nail in the wall, and passing a loop of it around his neck, for no other reason than because he had been shut up in his room, and allowed only dry bread, as a punishment for breaking his father's watch. The same journal gives another case of a suicide committed by a boy eleven years old, for being reproved by his father; and several more of a similar description are also recorded."*

The records of such cases, melancholy as they are, might undoubtedly be very much multiplied. We have ourselves known a lad, about fourteen years old, on the occasion, as was supposed, of some trifling disquietude or offence similar to those which have just been mentioned, go out of the shop where he worked, and, in the light and pleasantness of a summer's day, put an end to his life by hanging himself from a tree in a neighbouring garden. § 174. Explanation of the above-mentioned cases.

Attempts have been made to trace the origin of all such cases exclusively to some form of disease existing in the physical system; to a disease, for instance, of the thoracic or abdominal viscera, or somewhere else; but, so far as we have been able to perceive, not with entire satisfaction. In many

* Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. 8, vol. xxvii., p. 212.

cases, undoubtedly, the cause of mental disorder is to be sought in the previously disordered condition of the body, particularly the nervous system; but it does not appear that this is always the fact. Not unfrequently, in cases of suicide, there is no perceptible change, no morbid developement in the body, which can furnish an explanation of that peculiar, and, for the most part, insane state of mind which leads to self-destruction. This is acknowledged, if we may rely upon the statements of Dr. Burrows in the case, by a number of distinguished physicians. "The same" (says Burrows, Comm., p. 416) "is observed in all cases of Insanity where the patient dies from any accident soon after he has become insane. The maniacal action [by which he means the disorder existing mentally] has not had time to take deep root, and no visible change in the intellectual organ [the brain] is therefore detected. This is additional testimony, which leads to the natural inference, that, when morbid changes are discovered in the brain, they are generally the consequences, and not the causes of mental derangement.'

What view, then, shall be taken of the cases which have just now been mentioned, and others like them? If physical disease, so far as we can judge, will not account for all of them, what further can be said? The simple fact seems to be, that frequently, in the instance of such persons, the principle of self-preservation, which in almost all cases binds men so strongly to the present life, either does not exist at all, or exists in very much diminished strength. If a man may be born destitute, in a great

degree, of some of the appetites or affections, or destitute of all powers of reasoning, as in the case of idiots, why may he not also come into the world with the propensity of self-preservation inordinately weak, so much so as scarcely to have any influence over his actions?

§ 175. Further remarks on this subject.

This view is confirmed not only by the consideration that, in many cases of suicide, medical philosophers themselves being the judges, there is no pretence at all of there being any disease or lesion of the physical organs; but also by the fact, although this circumstance might not of itself alone be a decisive one, that the tendency to suicide appears frequently to be hereditary.-"I have had several members of one family under my care" (says Dr. Burrows), "where this propensity declared itself through three generations. In the first, the grandfather hung himself; he left four sons. One hung himself; another cut his throat; and a third drowned himself in a most extraordinary manner, after being some months insane; the fourth died a natural death, which, from his eccentricity and unequal mind, was scarcely to be expected. Two of these sons had large families. One child of the third son died insane; two others drowned themselves; another is now insane, and has made the most determinate attempts on his life.-Several of the progeny of this family, being the fourth generation, who are now arrived at puberty, bear strong marks of the same fatal propensity."

Mental traits and peculiarities are propagated (such is the great law of Providence) with nearly as much certainty, in other words, with nearly as definite reference to the principles of propagative succession, as those of the body. If the parents exhibit a mental defect or disorder, the children will be very likely to do the same. If the parents are suicides, and if the suicidal tendency, as is frequently the fact, has its basis in undue weakness or estrangement of the self-preservative principle, we should not be surprised to find the same tendency developing itself in some of their descendants.

The supposition, then, which we make, in reference to such cases of suicide as have been detailed, and many others like them, is, that the Propensity of Self-preservation is, naturally and by the inheritance of birth, disordered by defect; in other words, inordinately weak, so much so as to fail in fulfilling the ordinary purposes of life. Consequently, when some disappointment arises, when some slight punishment is inflicted, when some current of public opinion sets against the individual, the dissatisfaction and melancholy which naturally follow are frequently found to be too great for the opposing and conservative principle of self-preservation, which, in their case, is unfortunately almost destitute of power. The strong chain which ordinarily binds men to the present scene, is, in their case, so exceedingly weak, that, one after another, they escape out of life on the very slightest occasions, and leave those behind them to weep and wonder at the strangeness of the event. It is like what we sometimes witness in a time of